The horizontal line represents the person’s life.1645 - born1712 - died

Burgess, Daniel

, a dissenting divine of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a wit himself, and “the
cause of wit in other men,” particularly dean Swift and
his contemporaries, was born in 1645 at Staines in Middlesex, where his father then was minister, but was afterwards, at the restoration, ejected for nonconformity from
the living of Collingbourne Ducis, in Wiltshire. Daniel
was educated at Westminster school, and in 1660 went to
Magdalen-hall, Oxford, but having some scruples of the
nonconformist stamp, he left the university without a
|
degree. It would appear, however, that he had taken orders, as we are told that immediately after he was invited
to be chaplain to a gentleman of Chute in Wiltshire, and
afterwards to a Mr. Smith of Tedworth, where he was
tutor to that gentleman’s son. In 1667, the earl of Orrery,
lord president of Munster, took Mr. Burgess over to Ireland, and appointed him master of a school which he had
established at Charleville for the purpose of strengthening
the protestant interest in that kingdom, and Mr. Burgess,
while here, superintended the education of the sons of
some of the Irish nobility and gentry. After leaving this
school, he was chaplain to lady Mervin, near Dublin; but
about this time, we are told, he was ordained in Dublin as
a presbyterian minister, and married a Mrs. Briscoe in that
city, by whom he had a son and two daughters.

He resided seven years in Ireland, at the end of which
he returned, at the request of his infirm father, and notwithstanding the strictness of the laws against nonconformity, preached frequently in Marlborough in Wiltshire,
and other places in the neighbourhood. For this he was
imprisoned for some time, but was released upon bail, and
in 1685 came to London; and the dissenters now having
more liberty, his numerous admirers hired a meeting for
him in Brydges-street, Covent-garden. “Being situated,” says one of his biographers, “in the neighbourhood of the theatre, and surrounded by many who are fools*
enough to mock at sin and religion, he frequently had
among his hearers those who came only to make themselvesmerry at the ex pence of religion, dissenters, and Daniel
Burgess. This his undaunted courage, his pointed wit, and
ready elocution, turned to great advantage: for he frequently fixed his eye on those scoffers, and addressing
them personally in a lively, piercing, and serious manner,
was blessed to the conversion of many who came only to
mock.” Much of this may be true, but it cannot, on the
other hand, be denied that Daniel provoked the mirth of
his hearers by a species of buffoonery in language, to
laugh at which was not necessarily connected with any contempt for religion.

He continued as a pastor over this congregation for thirty
years, during which a new place of worship was built by
them in Carey-street, and when much injured, or as it is
called, gutted, by Dr. Sacheverell’s mob, was repaired at
the expence of government. He died January 1712-13,
| in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in St.
Clement Danes, Strand. It has escaped the notice of his
biographers, that the celebrated lord Bolingbroke* was
once his pupil, and the world has perhaps to regret that
his lordship did not learn what Daniel Burgess might have
taught him, for Daniel, with all his oddities, which made
him for so many years the butt of Swift, Steele, and the
other wits of the time, was a man of real piety. Unfortunately, like his successor Bradbury, he had a very considerable portion of wit, which he could not restrain, and
where he thought an argument might be unsuccessful, he
tried a pun. One of his biographers has furnished us with
two instances that may illustrate the general character of
his preaching. When treating on “the robe of righteousness,” he said, “If any of you would have a good and
cheap suit, you will go to Monmouth-street; if you want
a stiit for life, you will go to the court of chancery; but if
you wish for a suit that will last to eternity, you must go
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put on his robe of righteousness.” In the reign of king William, he assigned a new
motive for the people of God who were the descendants of
Jacob, being called Israelites; namely, because God did
not choose that his people should be called Jacobites! His
works were numerous, but principally single sermons,
preached on funeral and ether occasions, and pious tracts.
One of his sermons is entitled “The Golden Snuffers,”
and was the first sermon preached to the societies for the
reformation of manners. It is a fair specimen of Daniel’s
method and style, being replete with forced puns and
quaint sayings, and consequently, in our opinion, better
adapted to amusement than edification. *

*

In 1702 Mr. Burgess’s only son
was made commissioner of prizes; and
in 1714, about a year after his father’s
death, he resided at Hanover, as secre­
tary and reader to the princess Sophia,
It is not improbable that he might
owe these promotions to lord Bolingbroke.

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